Alexander Calder
American, 1898–1976
Streetcar
INV-1092
Alexander Calder
American, 1898–19761951
sculpturemodern and contemporary art
Date
1951
Medium
Sheet steel, brass, wire, and paint
Dimensions
106.7 × 294.6 cm (42 × 116 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Gift of Florene May Marx and Samuel A. Marx
A leading exponent of kinetic art, Alexander Calder revolutionized sculpture by creating suspended abstract forms that were named “mobiles” by the artist Marcel Duchamp. Describing them as “detached bodies floating in space,” Calder produced works that are perpetually in motion, through a system of weights and counterbalances, as they move in response to subtle air currents. Embracing the rhythms of modern life, Calder’s Streetcar transforms a noisy mode of urban transportation into a restrained, slowed composition of biomorphic shapes made from industrial materials.
Also notable
Works in the same vein
